Conclusion

The Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 may be Kingston's first USB 3.0 flash drive, but they are off on a very good start. Like the seasoned veterans that they are, Kingston's engineers have successfully crafted a very fast USB flash drive that leaves its USB 2.0 competitors in the dust.

Kingston rated the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 as capable of delivering up to 80 MB/s in read speed and 60 MB/s in write speed. Our tests using IO Meter showed that the drive is actually capable of delivering in excess of 90 MB/s in large sequential read speed and 65 MB/s in large sequential write speed.

In our real-world file transfer test though, the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 was capable of a sustained read speed of 55 MB/s and a sustained write speed of 42 MB/s. At those speeds, it would take just over 6 minutes to completely fill out this 16 GB flash drive, and under 5 minutes to copy out its entire contents. In other words, this is a very fast USB flash drive.

As phenomenal as this drive is, there are a few things we must point out. Compared to the svelte (and sometimes, ridiculously small) USB flash drives that we are all used to, the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 is built like a tank. It's large and it's heavy and it emits a considerable amount of heat - well, as USB flash drives go anyway. It also uses a fair bit more power than your usual USB flash drive, so leaving it idle on your notebook while on battery power wouldn't be a very good idea.

However, if you feel those weak points are acceptable or even irrelevant to you, then the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 would be an excellent choice should you be interested in a very fast USB 3.0 flash drive. Just make sure you have a USB 3.0 port. Sure, you can use it with any USB 2.0 port but it would just turn it into a very expensive (but fast) USB 2.0 flash drive.

Despite its larger size and considerable thermal output, we feel that the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0's phenomenal performance is worthy of our Reviewer's Choice Award. Congratulations, Kingston!

For the lowest current prices on the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0, click here!

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